Oklahoma governor signs Texas-style ban on most abortions

Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed a Texas-style abortion ban that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press

3 Could 2022, 23:03

• 4 min learn

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a Texas-style abortion ban on Tuesday that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, a part of a nationwide push in GOP-led states hopeful that the conservative U.S. Supreme Court will uphold new restrictions.

“I want Oklahoma to be essentially the most pro-life state in the nation," Stitt tweeted after signing the bill.

Stitt's signing of the invoice comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's excessive court that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The invoice Stitt signed takes effect immediately with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the bill. Abortion suppliers say now that the brand new regulation is in effect, they are going to immediately cease offering services for ladies after six weeks of being pregnant.

“Whereas the regulation is in impact, which it now's because the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks can be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a employees attorney for the New York-based Heart for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers in the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will still grant us relief."

The brand new regulation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise might be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, earlier than many ladies know they're pregnant. The same invoice approved in Texas last yr led to a dramatic discount within the number of abortions performed in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Great Plains, mentioned Texas' regulation that took effect in September has given their workers an thought of what a post-Roe nation may appear to be.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have frequently treated patients who are fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking time off of work, taking time out of college and taking time away from their family responsibilities to get the care that till September 2021 they have been able to get safely and readily in their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if performed as the results of a medical emergency, however there are no exceptions if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would enable non-public citizens to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a woman get hold of an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket allowed that mechanism to stay in place, different Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this year signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure isn't set to take impact until this summer season, and legal experts say it's likely to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade determination nonetheless stays the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last twenty years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in response to data from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, before the Texas legislation was passed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma were girls from Texas.

Earlier than the Texas ban took effect on Sept. 1, about 40 ladies from Texas had abortions carried out in Oklahoma each month, the data shows. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas girls in September and 243 in October.